“The Tales of the Prophets” are collections of tales about pre-Islamic figures in the Qur’an stemming from Jewish, Christian and Arabian sources that expand upon typically terse scriptural references. A parallel genre arose among the Arabic-speaking Jewish communities in the Islamic world.

In this talk, we will examine the narrative techniques employed in two such Judeo-Arabic texts about Joseph and Moses, showing the range of interdependence between Jewish and Muslim traditions surrounding figures sacred to both.

Marc S. Bernstein is associate professor of Judaic and Islamic Cultures at Michigan State University.